While I love the sentiment, and I thought the video “Galaxy rise” was great, the autotuning in this video is really really bad. I just can’t enjoy it, it is completely screeching to listen to… The words alone are better in this case!

While I’m usually vehemently opposed to the autotune, I’ve really enjoyed some of the music in this series. Perhaps Dr. Plait will sing something profound so it can be used in the next song without autotune.

@4 – I can’t tell I’d that is sarcasm or not… While I have no intentions to argue the cultural heritage or worth of Bevis & Butthead, it was a well done, if absurdly immature show. If you want to pick something to liken to te decline of civilization and insight, I’d suggest that Tyra Bank’s model search reality show.

Personally, I love these, and the the mix of composed music and the autotuning (or vox or whatever) adds a level of beauty to the words. That being said, this one was “eh” at best. It started nice, then took a sharp turn into pop tunes land. I would have preferred the piano to drive it instead.

To some people that might not otherwise show any interest in science because they see it as boring, stuffy, or snobby, the music videos might appeal to them and open up very profound and moving scientific conclusions. There’s really no reason not to encourage creative promotion of science if it increases its appeal and popularity in society.

Not fond of the music, don’t like autotuning or vocoding very much. I’ve disliked this sort of thing even since the days of Peter Frampton singing through his guitar. However, that’s just personal taste. The fact that someone who does like this sort of thing has chosen to express their love of science, to express the “poetry of science” through their art is wonderful. It is simply wonderful.

I’ve been a big fan of “Glorious Dawn” for awhile (not so much with the other pieces). The reason I think it works, is that it stayed true to the vibe of Sagan’s show. He had such a musical delivery and it’s great to hear it realized in this way. A fitting tribute to Sagan and his legacy.

John, I think maybe you missed the point. Beavis and Butthead was to social commentary as punk rock was to music.

I am surprised that several of the first comments here about these videos were negative. I don’t care how the audio was done – I found them to be simply astonishing and very moving. “The Unbroken Thread” literally brought tears to my eyes. Sometimes, people, you need to stop being critical of the minutia and simply embrace, or at least appreciate, the emotional impact. With more efforts like these videos, perhaps fewer people would see scientists (and by extension the skeptical movement) as stuffy, disconnected, unemotional, ivory-tower elites who lack imagination and a sense of wonder. To the producers of these videos, I say “Bravo!”

“With more efforts like these videos, perhaps fewer people would see scientists (and by extension the skeptical movement) as stuffy, disconnected, unemotional, ivory-tower elites who lack imagination and a sense of wonder”

While I see your point, I am not saying it SHOULDN’T be done. I just don’t tear up watching it. Instead it gave me the willies….but to each his own.

I just realized watching that video where my distaste for most of the skeptical movement comes from. They claim science as their own, and at the same time reject those who hold religious beliefs as uneducated or foolish. Yet as the more wise here have said, religion and science have very little to do with each other, so the skeptics are ejecting the religious scientists from a field they’re usurping as their own — and where do those scientists go? Can I not study the universe and still believe in God? Will you discard a man’s real findings because of his beliefs? The answer looks like a sideways “yes”, and that really saddens me.

There are bad religionists just like there are bad astronomists, but please don’t discount legitimate scientific findings from good religionists just because you dislike the bad ones.

Something tells me I should load up on another tankard of coffee before I try to tackle this subject but it’s getting late(in the postings) so I’ll give this a shot anyway.

Poetry is the art of encapsulating a complex idea in rhythm and minimal descriptive verbiage.

Science is a discipline that attempts to describe complex ideas in a concise, exact format, replicable by any other interested party.

There is great overlap between these two human endeavors. When we meet another technological sentient species, if we can’t share poetry, dance and music we’ll be so different we’ll probably go to war. Even dolphins sing and dance.

This rendition is interesting and emotionally evocative. The Dead could do it better but this is a good effort.

It is movement #4, if you are counting from 0, like any good programmer

And, this may be my second fave of the bunch (I doubt I’ll love any as much as I love “Glorious Dawn.”)

@BH: I’m sorry you seem to have run into a few people who would reject a scientific finding based on a person’s beliefs, but that is not representative of most scientists or, I think, many in the skeptical movement. Although, I’m pretty sure astronomist isn’t a proper term for one who studies astronomy.

The most odd thing is how its creator can go on making several such videos.
I mean that autotune style gets boring already into the first video.
It sadly has me question the autenticity and motives of its creator.
Is it a money thing (enough people out there to give a short sensation?) or
a genuine belief in the format ? At least a new way to get the soul transcendation gospel through.

Great video though. Only the speaking is best done using ordinary voices.